


The Divorce Sucks Support Group

by yourekindof_weird



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Divorce, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Genderfluid Character, He doesn't know, Minor Character Death, Swearing, actually he's probably pansexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21690985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourekindof_weird/pseuds/yourekindof_weird
Summary: Ricky Bowen starts going to a support group for kids whose parents are getting divorced. While there, he meets a girl (who's also not a girl but Ricky doesn't know that). Together, they deal with divorce, friends, secrets and a musical (of course).
Relationships: Big Red & Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Ricky Bowen & E.J. Caswell, Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	The Divorce Sucks Support Group

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if this is terrible but I love Ricky and I want him to be happy so I wrote this. 
> 
> Warning: talk of wildfires and wildfire fatalities, divorce (idk what people might need to be warned about so I put the heavy topics)

“Hi, newbie,” a girl says from behind Ricky, startling him. He spins quickly to face her. A sticker on her shirt declares her name: Don. “Woah, no need to look so scared. It’s my first time too.”

Oh. Right. She’s the other person that Seth, group leader, specially introduced at the beginning of the meeting. Ugh. The meeting. Ricky’s glad it’s finally over. Now, everyone’s just wandering around getting snacks and waiting to be picked up. At least he wasn’t the only new face in the group.

“Uh. Hi,” Ricky says. Smooth. Don chuckles. In her hand is a cup, like the one in Ricky’s own hand, but hers has orange juice in it instead of water. She’s a head shorter than Ricky, her dark brown hair is cut short, falling only just below her ears. She’s wearing a plain red t-shirt that’s tucked into her black jeans and a worn leather jacket that’s way too big for her. 

_She’s pretty_ , Ricky thinks. 

“Although,” Don says, “It’s not my first meeting _ever_.” 

“It’s not?”

“Nah. I’m new to town, that’s all.”

“Oh, cool. I’m Ricky, by the way,” Don laughs at him. At Ricky’s clear confusion, she points to his name tag. Ricky groans internally. He feels like a dumbass. 

“Well then, Ricky-by-the-way, welcome to your very first ‘Divorce Sucks’ support group meeting,” Don grins. “I’m Don,” she adds, cheekily pointing to her own name tag. Ricky smiles back, ducking his head. His curls fall over his eyes and he quickly brushes them away. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem!” She takes a sip of orange juice, meeting his eyes over the rim of the cup. “You know, don’t feel pressured or anything, but it _does_ help to talk and share at meetings.”

“You didn’t share, either,” Ricky points out.

“That, my friend, is because I had nothing to talk _about._ You, on the other hand, do.”

Before Ricky has time to respond to… all of _that_ , Seth shoos them out of the room. “There’s an alcoholics anonymous meeting in here in ten minutes and they need the room to themselves,” he tells them.

Ricky finds himself sitting on a bench outside of the community center with Don. Nobody is coming to pick either of them up, as it turns out, since Ricky took his skateboard and Don rode her bike to the meeting. 

“How do you know that I even have anything to say?” Ricky finally gets to ask.

“They’re done skirting around it, right?” Don asks grimly. “They just decided to make it official. No more ‘oh, we’re working it out!’ and ‘I’ll be back from Toronto soon and we can be a happy family again!’ They’ve finally decided to end things. Right?”

“Chicago.”

“Hm?”

“For my parents it’s Chicago, not Toronto. My mom…” he can’t even finish the sentence. Fuck. He feels pathetic. 

“See?” says Don. “You did want to talk.”

“I know,” Ricky wrings his fingers in his lap, wishing that he hadn’t thrown away his cup so he could at least be holding something. “I’m just…”

“Nervous?”

“Yeah.”

“Makes sense.” Don says. Ricky doesn’t respond, averting his eyes when Don tries to meet them. She sighs heavily. “It’s my aunt and uncle.”

“Your aunt and uncle are getting divorced?” He doesn’t see why she would need a support group for that.

“Yeah. It wouldn’t be such a big deal except, well, they’re my guardians so, yeah, it’s really shitty. I used to think that having to adopt me was what pushed them apart. Turns out it’s actually because my uncle is a cheating dickhead.”

“Jeez,” Ricky says. 

“Yep. Anyway, my uncle stayed in Toronto and my aunt moved the two of us down here.”

“So, you’re from Canada?”

“Hell yeah, I am! I lived in British Columbia with my parents. My aunt and uncle lived in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, though, so I lived there for four years. It’s a beautiful place,” Don smiles for the first time since they’d gotten outside and Ricky can’t help but smile back.

They talk for a while. Ricky opens up about his parents and finds out that Don was in a band back in Canada. Ricky tells Don about the drama with Nini and EJ and how even though things aren’t the worst anymore, they’re still tense. Don tells him to see the situation from their perspective, too. 

“What school are you gonna be going to?” Ricky asks. Don gives him a look, so she knows that he’s changing the topic, but indulges him anyway.

“I’m starting on Monday at-” or, she _tries_ to indulge him. A harsh ringing fills the air and Don curses, pulling a _flip phone_ out of her pocket. She answers, her eyes widening almost immediately. When she hangs up, she’s already starting to stand up. “Sorry, Ricky! I forgot that I needed to get groceries for my aunt! I’ve gotta go! She’s angry that she doesn’t have her broccoli yet!”

“Wait!” Ricky calls. “Can I get your number?” He flushes immediately. 

“Uh.”

“Friends! Cause we’re friends, obviously.”

“I’ll have to give you my number next meeting,” Don says, waving the flip phone in the air. “This piece of shit is being replaced tomorrow morning. I broke my phone on our way here so my aunt gave me this brick.”

“I could give you my number?”

“Go for it,” Don pulls a pen out of nowhere (probably her back pocket, though Ricky doesn’t know why she would have a pen there) and hands it to him, holding her hand out for him to write on. 

They part ways, both smiling giddily and both strangely excited for their next support group meeting. 

And if Ricky happens to text about Don to Big Red for most of the night, well, nobody else has to know. She’s just- it’s really nice having a friend that knows what he’s going through. Someone who understands. 

The next morning, a plain, Monday morning, right as Ricky gets to school, his phone pings.

**From: Unknown Number**

Hi Ricky-by-the-way! 

Ricky just has time to text back before his first class starts.

**To: Don**

Hi! Am I ‘Ricky-by-the-way’ in your phone?

After class, he checks his phone again-

**From: Don**

Well you are now

-and promptly bumps right into EJ, because his luck is just _like that_. They both stumble back a bit, and Ricky curses in his head because Nini is there too. 

And okay, here’s the thing. They’re actually okay now, the three of them. Because Ricky apologized and he and Nini are actually talking now and Carlos even commended Ricky and EJ for how well they were portraying Troy and Chad’s friendship. That doesn’t mean things aren’t awkward, though.

“Sorry,” Ricky says at the same time that EJ does. 

“Hey, Ricky,” Nini says, smiling and wow, it’s genuine. Ricky smiles back and… so does EJ? 

Turns out EJ is a pretty cool guy once you stop trying to steal his girlfriend. He’s not the _best_ person ever but he’s not the worst either. It shocks Ricky to his core, but he wouldn’t actually mind being EJ’s _friend_ . Which is just, you know, _woah._

“Hi,” Ricky says, shoving his phone into his pocket. He’ll have to respond to Don later. 

Except, maybe not. 

“Ricky!” A voice shouts from behind Ricky, down the hallway. Ricky whirls around and comes face to face with the sight of Don running down the hallway towards him. 

“Don?” Ricky says, baffled, once Don plants herself in front of him.

“Ricky. You go here?”

“Yes? You do to?”

“Yep! First day at a new school and I already know someone! Hell yeah!” She’s swimming in her too-big leather jacket again, smiling brightly at him. 

“Um,” oh yeah, Nini and EJ are still behind him. Nini’s eyebrows are scrunched in confusion as she speaks, “Hi?”

“Oh,” Don steps sideways to greet Nini and EJ. “Hello. I’m Don.”

“I’m Nini.”

“EJ.” Don’s eyes widen, recognizing their names. Ricky wants to fall into a hole because these two parts of his life were never supposed to intersect. He can’t be too upset, though, because it means he gets to hang out with Don more often than he thought.

“How do you know Ricky?” Nini asks.

Oh shit. He really doesn’t want to talk about this, especially with EJ around, since they’re not _that_ close. Don must catch the pained look that Ricky fails to school because she lies for him.

“This idiot almost ran me over on his skateboard yesterday,” she says, jabbing her thumb in Ricky’s direction. “I needed directions to the grocery store anyway, so I asked him and we ended up talking for like, an hour.”

The support group meeting lasted more than an hour, and they probably only talked for half an hour, but close enough. 

“Watch where you’re going next time, Ricky,” Nini laughs. “It was nice meeting you, Don, but I’ve gotta get to class.”

“Nice meeting you too, Nini!”

“I should get going too, actually,” EJ says.

“What’s your next class?” Ricky asks as EJ walks off. 

“English. With,” Don pulls a small paper from her pocket, “Mrs. Busch.”

It’s the same class that Ricky has, so they walk together. In most of his classes, Ricky sits somewhere in the middle of the class, not at the back of the room but not at the very front. When Don steps into the class and immediately sits down in the very front row, well, Ricky isn’t about to just _not_ sit beside her. 

They end up having a few classes together throughout the day. Ricky finds out that Don is amazing in English class and chemistry, but absolute shit in trigonometry. At lunch, Don gets to know Nini and EJ some more, as well as some of the other kids from the musical. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were in the musical?” Don exclaims. She puts a hand over her heart and fakes being scandalized. “I thought we were friends!”

“He’s not just in it,” Carlos pipes up. “He’s Troy.”

At that, Don actually gapes. She turns to Ricky, eyes bugging. “You’re one of the _lead_ fucking _roles._ Ricky! I wish it wasn’t too late for me to audition!” 

It’s actually sort of funny that not even three days later, the musical is hit with a crisis. One of their backup singers/dancers up and quits. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had quit earlier, closer to when rehearsals first started. Now that pretty much everything is choreographed? Total disaster. Carlos is freaking out.

“Don!” Thank god Ricky found her before she left school. 

“Ricky? I thought you were supposed to be at rehearsal.”

“Do you still want to audition for the musical?”

“What? I guess? Is everything okay?”

“Someone just quit and we need someone new and I thought maybe you’d like to be part of it,” Ricky says, all in one breath. 

“Slow down, man. Of course I would. I can probably have a song from High School Musical ready by tomorrow.”

“Can you have something now? It’s an emergency.”

“Now?” Don stares at him like there’s a tree growing out of his head. “Not from High School Musical.”

Well shit. “What’s the last musical you watched?”

“Uh, I rewatched Teen Beach Movie with my aunt last weekend, I guess,” Don says, somewhat embarrassed and still very confused. Ricky starts walking back towards the auditorium. It takes a second for Don to realize that she needs to follow him.

“Do you know any of the songs from that?” Ricky asks.

“One, but it’s a duet.”

“Alright.”

“Alright?”

“I’ll sing it with you. Just give me a second, I’ll listen to it and look at the lyrics.”

At the beginning of the school year, Ricky wouldn’t have even _thought_ of doing something like this. But now, after being Troy for weeks. After finding out that he actually enjoys acting and singing and dancing? Doing an impromptu, unrehearsed duet so Don can be part of the musical is totally worth it. 

Don tells him which song it is and he listens to it with his headphones, following along with the lyrics that he found on the internet. 

“I don’t think I can do this,” Don says once Ricky’s done listening to the song. 

“You told me that you were in a band, right? You’ve got this.”

“I was in a _bluegrass_ band, Ricky. I sang harmonies and played the _fiddle_.”

“Don. It’ll be fine.”

And then they’re inside of the auditorium. 

“Miss Jenn? I found someone.”

“Can they audition tonight?”

“Yep!”

Nini waves when she sees Don, and it seems to give Don a little extra boost of confidence.

“I only know a duet and it’s not from High School Musical,” Don says. “Is that okay? Ricky volunteered to sing with me but he’ll need the lyrics on his phone.”

Miss Jenn agrees, just grateful that there’s _someone_ available to actually audition. 

“What’s your name, honey?” Miss Jenn asks. 

“Oh, uh. Belladonna Rhys. Just Don is fine, though.” 

Ricky watches as Don does the dance part of the audition. Gina shows her a dance from the show itself and Don? Doesn’t do terribly. It’s surprising for the sole reason that Ricky has known Don for four days and she’s managed to trip or run into something at least twice each day. Don seems pretty surprised herself. 

Don’s visibly nervous about the singing part. She looks as nervous as Ricky himself was for his audition (although, for a different reason entirely). 

Don opens her mouth and sings the first few words of the song. She had nothing to be nervous about. 

That’s even clearer when they get to the chorus, their voices melting together,

_Oh, I can't stop singing_

_Make it stop, make it stop_

_Am I real or just a prop?_

_Oh, I can't stop singing_

_So let's just talk_

Don is smiling by the time they get to the bridge. “ _We’re stuck inside a musical!_ ” She sings. 

Ricky can't help but stare at her in awe as he sings his line. “ _At least I'm here with you!_ ”

Don gets the part. She hugs him after rehearsal ends.

On Sunday, Ricky goes to his second ever support group meeting for children of divorcing parents. Don’s been calling it the DSSG over text. The Divorce Sucks Support Group, as she’d called it earlier. 

Ricky talks. Don doesn’t.

Ricky talks about his parents. About how it started with fights, then not talking to each other, ignoring each other. Not communicating anymore. His mom going to Chicago and not saying when she'll be back. He talks and talks and when he's done he feels, almost _relieved_ , in a way. 

When the meeting ends, Ricky once again finds himself sitting on a bench outside of the community center with Don. He’s got a cookie, because even though it’s a shitty store bought cookie, Seth was offering them to everyone for free.

“Don,” Ricky says. Don looks up at him, startled, her cheeks bulging from having just stuffed an entire store bought mini-muffin into her mouth. 

Once she’s gotten the muffin down, she laughs. “Yeah?”

“You didn’t talk again.”

“I told you, I-”

“Don’t have anything to talk about. I know. I just don’t think that’s true.”

“Oh? You’ve only known me for a week, Ricky.”

“You figured me out the day that we met, Don.”

“Okay, that’s fair. What do you think it is that I have to talk about, then?” 

“Your parents.”

“My aunt and uncle are getting divorced, not my parents. You know this, Ricky.”

“That doesn’t change my answer.”

“Ricky,” Don’s eyes beg him to drop it. He can’t. He’s _worried_ about her. 

“Don, I think it would be good for you to-”  
“No!” she jumps up, standing over him, finger in his face. “Listen here, asshole. You know _nothing_ about what would be ‘good for me!’ I went to therapy for that. _Four years ago._ When it happened!”

“But _what_ happened?” Ricky stands up too, because Don is _scary_. “Don’t act like it doesn’t affect you. The way that you act when people at school mention their parents-”

“My guardians are getting divorced, dipshit. Of course I get weird when people talk about their happy families! You do too!”

“That’s not it though, is it Don?” Ricky knows he’s pushing. He knows that he’s crossed a line. But he cares about Don. It doesn’t matter that they’ve only known each other for a week. Sometimes, lines need to be crossed.

“Fuck you, Ricky.”

Ricky doesn’t see Don again until Monday morning, in English class. She didn’t respond to any of the texts that he sent her after she stormed off on Sunday. She doesn’t speak to him all day, even at rehearsal. 

“Have you tried talking to her?” Big Red asks at lunch.

“Of course I have.”

“Have you apologized?”

“Not in person.”

Don doesn’t say a word to him all week. Not until Friday, that is.

They’re in Chemistry class, doing a lab. Last week, Don sat beside Ricky and did everything with him. This week, she’s been hanging out with Nini (and Ashlyn and Gina, but they’re not in Chem with them). 

The lab they’re doing involves Bunsen burners and Don looks really freaking uncomfortable. She makes Nini do most of the actual experiment while she records all of the results on her own, staying as far away from the flame as possible while trying not to look weird. She looks pretty weird. Especially since she keeps trying to subtly hide inside of that oversized leather jacket of hers.

Ricky’s lab partner nudges him, bringing him back to himself. He pulls his eyes away from Don, focusing back on his experiment.

It all comes to head just minutes later when Don and Nini’s burner flares up, the brilliant orange flame reaching a height that Ricky didn’t think was possible for a Bunsen burner. Both Don and Nini shriek, but it’s Don that Nini has to escort to the nurse’s office because she’s having a panic attack. 

Ricky doesn’t even have to think. He just follows Don and Nini out the door. The teacher calls his name but he doesn’t listen. They may not be talking right now but Don is his friend.

Don and Nini are sitting on the floor, their backs up against some lockers. Nini looks sort of lost, unsure of what to do. Don has her arms wrapped around her legs, head bowed to her knees. Her leather jacket is so long it touches the floor. She’s shaking slightly. Crying.

“Don,” Ricky sits down on Don’s other side. 

“Fuck off, Ricky.”

“Are you okay?”

“You were right,” she sits up straighter now, tears in her eyes. “You were right.”

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to,” Ricky tells her. He feels like shit. He probably just made things worse for her on Sunday when he brought it up. 

“I should. Talk about it, I mean. You were right. It would help.”

Ricky doesn't know what else to say, so he falls silent. They sit there for a while, the only sounds being muffled chatter coming from busy classrooms. Nini bites her lip, unsure of what to do. Don’s breathing is heavy and ragged. Ricky runs a hand through his hair. 

Their silence is broken by none other than EJ, who comes out of the boys bathroom to find three of his friends inexplicably sitting on the floor. 

“Hi,” he says, making his presence known. Don flinches, but looks up at him, not bothering to hide her tear stained cheeks. 

“Hi, EJ,” Don says, sounding defeated. “Sit with us. I'm about to share all of my trauma. It'll be fun.”

EJ raises an eyebrow at Ricky, who can only shrug in response. EJ sits down in front of Don, so now she's surrounded by friends. She takes a deep breath, wiping the tears off her face. 

“So,” she says, “my parents were firefighters.”

Ricky feels a pit start to form in the bottom of his stomach. 

“Specifically,” Don continues, “they fought wildfires. Four years ago, they both got called to set up fuel-free perimeters. Those can usually stop the fire in its tracks. They were both called to different wildfires. Neither of them came back.” 

“Oh god,” Nini takes Don’s hand in hers. 

“Yeah, so now you can see why I’m not great around fire,” she nods her head in the direction of the Chemistry classroom and laughs mirthlessly. EJ, who wasn’t there for the actual incident, gasps quietly. 

“I’m sorry for pushing on Sunday,” Ricky says.

“I know. I’m sorry too,” Don leans her head on Ricky’s shoulder. Ricky’s heart leaps. “For not talking to you.”

“It was my fault,” Ricky, in a fit of sudden bravery, grasps her free hand. “I was so worried for you that I pushed too hard.”

“I’m glad you did, though,” Don tells him. “It made me think.”

“You hung out on Sunday?” Nini says, reminding Ricky that she and EJ are there, too. 

Don saves him from having to talk about the support group again. “Yeah. Ricky was just showing me around. Bringing me to all of the cool spots. Since I’m new.”

“Where’d you go?” EJ asks. Ricky sees what EJ and Nini are doing; changing the subject so Don doesn’t feel so bad anymore. It’s a clever plan. Ricky just hopes that Don can keep up the charade. Turns out, she definitely can. 

“He showed me the skate park,” Don explains.

“Of course he did,” EJ grins.

“Then we went to a movie. I don’t even want to talk about it. It was so bad that I can’t even remember what it’s called,” Don says. Ooh. Good evasion tactic. 

And then the bell’s ringing, and huh. Ricky hadn’t realized that they’d been out of class for so long. The teacher must not have thought it was worth it to get Ricky back to class, and Nini was meant to have brought Don to the nurse’s office and come right back. Oh well. 

They all head to lunch together. Ricky doesn’t notice until they’ve sat down that Don’s hand is still in his. 

Two days later, at the support group meeting, Don talks. She talks about losing her parents. About how she heard about her mom dying before she heard that she’d also lost her dad. About how she’d thought she would eventually be okay because she still had her dad. About how that ended up not being true. She talks about being taken in by her aunt and uncle. About how she thought it was her fault that they fell apart. She shares her thoughts and feelings and fears. 

Ricky talks, too. He talks about his mom moving out for good. About how he’s scared to talk about it with his friends. About how the last time he talked about it with Nini, he almost kissed her, and he’s worried that she’ll think he’ll try again if he brings up his parents. (Don rolls her eyes and tells him that Nini’s supportive, not stupid). 

Afterwards, Don and Ricky go to get coffee instead of sitting around on the bench. Neither of them end up getting coffee, though. Ricky gets a hot cocoa and Don orders tea. Don finds this fact very funny. Ricky finds Don very adorable.

“You talked,” they say at the same time. Don laughs loudly while Ricky buries his face in his hands.

“I don’t think we _need_ to talk to our friends about this,” Don says. “But I don’t think we should _hide_ it, Ricky Bowen.”

“I think you’re right, Belladonna Rhys,” the second her name is out of Ricky’s mouth, Don tenses up. 

“Just Don,” she says, harshly.

“Right, sorry.”

“Fuck. I didn’t mean to sound angry. Just-” her hand clenches around her cup of tea. “He/him pronouns right now, ‘kay?”

“Huh?”

“You know, ‘cause I’m genderfluid?”

“You’re what?”

“Did I not tell you? I thought I told you? Ashlyn and Carlos know. I’m sure Nini and EJ probably do too. Now that I think about it, though...”

“You did _not_ tell me,” then, horrified at himself, Ricky gasps. “I haven’t been misgendering you at all, have I?”

“Not that I know of? I guess I never told you. I usually use she/her or they/them anyway, so no biggie. Is that gonna be a problem, because I thought this date was going pretty well, all things considered.”

“Date? This is a date?”

“I asked you out for coffee, Ricky. This is a date,” Don says confidently. Quickly, though, she adds, “Unless you don’t want it to be!”

“This is a date,” Ricky repeats Don’s previous words. 

They end up talking for hours, holding hands under the table. They even end up going to Don’s place to work on homework just so they don’t have to stop being around each other. 

At the beginning of the school year, Ricky thought his life was falling apart. He’d lost Nini to EJ, somehow ended up in a musical, and his parent’s marriage was an irreparable shattered vase. 

Now? He’s friends with Nini _and_ EJ, he loves being in the musical, and he’s got the support he needs to help him get through his parent’s split. And Don. He’s got Don now, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so the random Teen Beach Movie song is literally just because I rewatched it to "relive my childhood" the other day and also because Maia Mitchell AND Ross Lynch are in it and then I started imagining the HSMTMTS characters singing those songs. Just imagine Ricky doing "Can't Stop Singing" with literally anyone. Imagine the cast doing "Like Me". Or Nini singing "Fallin' For Ya". Anyway thanks for reading this piece of trash.
> 
> For Reference in case you were wondering:
> 
> Can't Stop Singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-65M7TLPTY 
> 
> Like Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL4ntL58hfk&list=PLXaH20eIS38Z8d2a8-G0itlMboUlB-Oak&index=5
> 
> Fallin' For Ya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yEuqc6LtoE


End file.
